Our district theme this year is "BE AWESOME EVERYDAY". When I think about someone who truly lives the meaning of these words on a DAILY basis, I think of sweet Tatum. Tatum that was just playing basketball with Gracie's little team in October. Tatum that was shining like a star on that court. Tatum that was just a typical 8 year old girl. Tatum that was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and is now fighting a battle no child should ever have to fight. Tatum that is the strongest and most inspirational person I know. She is touching the lives of SO many people by showing us how to make the most of our circumstances and FIGHT for life. She lives her life not fearfully, but courageously. Her positive attitude and unwavering faith are uplifting. Tatum not only lives by this theme, but inspires others to do the same.
How do we learn to fight as awesome as Tatum does?
Let's start by turning to good old Webster for a solid understanding of the word...
ˈôsəm/
adjective
adjective: awesome
- extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring great admiration, apprehension, or fear.
- "the awesome power of the atomic bomb"
synonyms: breathtaking, awe-inspiring, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning, staggering, imposing, stirring, impressive;formidable, fearsome, dreaded;informal mind-boggling, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping, excellent, marvelous;literary wondrous;archaic awful
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Those are some big, and powerful words. Inspiring words. Words that when tied to "BE" and "EVERYDAY" could be hugely powerful! What if we did a tiny little piece of something awe-inspiring every SINGLE day? What if we added all of our daily "being" up to make something absolutely breathtaking? I'm not saying that we will conquer the world in a day, a week or even a year. Masterpieces don't just happen, and certainly not overnight. Just as Tatum knows her fight won't be easy, or short, but still doesn't give up. Let's duplicate her "I can anyway" attitude to regenerate awesomeness!
As I skim certain synonyms of awesome such as fearsome, awful and dreaded, I realize that those words may not be as misplaced as they seem, particularly in Tatum's case. Maybe it is a piece that makes sense once you complete the entire puzzle. How often does something completely life-changing happen without lots of discomfort, hardships, failures and hard work? Just because we commit to be awesome everyday doesn't mean that it will always be easy. Like all jaw-dropping accomplishments, look behind the scenes and find a person or people that feared, dreaded, but eventually persevered into making a masterpiece. After all, facing weeks and weeks of chemotherapy, amputation, and spinal surgery doesn't stop Tatum!
The more I think about this "be awesome everyday" phrase, I find examples that happen every single day at RH! The awesomeness in tirelessly adding every little piece to our lessons to make it more engaging and increase learning! The awesomeness in finding any little pocket of time we can to identify and meet needs of those individuals that are struggling. The awesomeness in spending our after-work hours communicating with parents to develop that trust and team approach to help their child (or grade papers, or make SMART files, or answer e-mail, or...the list goes on and on...). The awesomeness in telling that student that thinks he is a failure, that we know he can do it (and he is just one step closer through this mistake). The awesomeness in wiping the tears off of the little girl's face that is being made fun of for her clothes and smell. The awesomeness in making that tough phone call to CPS through our tears of wanting to protect that baby from what she endures every week. The awesomeness in encouraging and empowering our co-workers that we spend so much time with everyday. The awesomeness in teaching our students that they can be anything they want to be. The list could go on and on. RH staff, you are doing your part of being awesome everyday. So, when we are in the awful, dreaded "chemotherapy" times, we need to recognize and remember that it is those seemingly small, but hugely meaningful, daily acts that are slowly fighting for us to build the best masterpiece of all.
The coolest, most inspiring part of our career as educators is that we are part of developing kids to be awesome! At Reeves-Hinger we don't take that responsibility lightly. I am reminded over and over how much our staff shares this vision of being awesome for kids! It's an amazing blessing in my life to work with so many truly AWESOME educators who truly do AWESOME things everyday to empower our students to become AWESOME! Let's keep showing our AWESOMENESS through any and every trial that comes our way! Let's make sure we see the awesomeness in our daily work that molds our students into masterpieces. We can use Tatum's contagious inspiration to keep going when we have a rotten day or don't feel confident. We can think of her strength through all of the challenges brought her way and know that if she can fight her battle, then certainly we can fight ours. Thank you Tatum, for teaching us so many life-lessons. We pray that we can fight like you, and we can't wait to see how God will continue to use you as one amazing masterpiece!
| #tatumtough #fightliketatum |
